Strengths: Our digital story project is a great teaching tool. Many teachers are reluctant to use project-based learning because of the demand placed upon the teacher. It is so difficult for the teacher to be everywhere at once. By modeling the lesson through a digital photo story, the teacher can give directions to the class as they see photos of what they will actually need to do during the project. Students love watching other students complete activities, too. Research shows that students learn best from other students. We also thought we could keep the photo story playing while the students are working so they can refer to it if needed throughout the lesson. The digital story could also teach teachers how to complete a project-based activity. We could use this story in a PLC to show other teachers how to complete a project-based learning activity in the classroom while working cross-content areas. We found that workstations were the best way to complete the activity. Instead of having everyone make pumpkin pie at the same time, we rotated them around to different stations. Our digital story displays student learning through manipulatives, cooperative learning, real world links, writing in response reading, and reflecting on learning through reflection journals. All content areas were integrated through the Pumpkin Project. We read about the history of the pumpkin and located on a map where the first pumpkin patch was located. We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin, we read multiple fiction and non-fiction books about pumpkins. Students classified pumpkin related nouns as common or proper. Students wrote pumpkin poems and wrote pumpkin stories. We also completed estimation and measurement activities with the pumpkins, graphed our findings and interpreted the graphs. By creating a cross-content area project, we were able to assess multiple standards in one lesson. Not only is it fun for the students, but informative for the teacher. We believe our project had several strengths.
Weaknesses: Our plan was to cut the pumpkins open and make our pumpkin pie in a bag outside so we could have a different setting for our picture, as well as better lighting, and a fall related background. However, we had a few obstacles. The first obstacle was mandated testing during two weeks in October for our 3rd and 4th grade students. This was a major constraint on our time as it took up two hours of instructional time each day for two weeks. The second obstacle was the weather. We were unable to go outside due to rain showers the two days we completed pumpkin carving and pumpkin pie. We wanted to go ahead with the carving because we were skeptical to delay the project because of the possibility of the pumpkins rotting. We improvised and changed the setting back to our classrooms. Some of the photos were taken in Miss McKinney’s room while others were taken in Mrs. Brock’s classroom. Unfortunately, the photos were a bit grainy. We have discussed this and we are not sure why. The pictures looked fine on the digital camera as we were taking them, but were grainy once they were uploaded to the computer. We think it was caused by the low-level lighting in the classroom, but we are not exactly sure. We edited the photos the best we could, but still are unhappy with the grainy appearance. We believe the photos would have been a better quality if they were taken outside.
Our digital story project is a great teaching tool. Many teachers are reluctant to use project-based learning because of the demand placed upon the teacher. It is so difficult for the teacher to be everywhere at once. By modeling the lesson through a digital photo story, the teacher can give directions to the class as they see photos of what they will actually need to do during the project. Students love watching other students complete activities, too. Research shows that students learn best from other students. We also thought we could keep the photo story playing while the students are working so they can refer to it if needed throughout the lesson. The digital story could also teach teachers how to complete a project-based activity. We could use this story in a PLC to show other teachers how to complete a project-based learning activity in the classroom while working cross-content areas. We found that workstations were the best way to complete the activity. Instead of having everyone make pumpkin pie at the same time, we rotated them around to different stations. Our digital story displays student learning through manipulatives, cooperative learning, real world links, writing in response reading, and reflecting on learning through reflection journals. All content areas were integrated through the Pumpkin Project. We read about the history of the pumpkin and located on a map where the first pumpkin patch was located. We learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin, we read multiple fiction and non-fiction books about pumpkins. Students classified pumpkin related nouns as common or proper. Students wrote pumpkin poems and wrote pumpkin stories. We also completed estimation and measurement activities with the pumpkins, graphed our findings and interpreted the graphs. By creating a cross-content area project, we were able to assess multiple standards in one lesson. Not only is it fun for the students, but informative for the teacher. We believe our project had several strengths.
Weaknesses:
Our plan was to cut the pumpkins open and make our pumpkin pie in a bag outside so we could have a different setting for our picture, as well as better lighting, and a fall related background. However, we had a few obstacles. The first obstacle was mandated testing during two weeks in October for our 3rd and 4th grade students. This was a major constraint on our time as it took up two hours of instructional time each day for two weeks. The second obstacle was the weather. We were unable to go outside due to rain showers the two days we completed pumpkin carving and pumpkin pie. We wanted to go ahead with the carving because we were skeptical to delay the project because of the possibility of the pumpkins rotting. We improvised and changed the setting back to our classrooms. Some of the photos were taken in Miss McKinney’s room while others were taken in Mrs. Brock’s classroom. Unfortunately, the photos were a bit grainy. We have discussed this and we are not sure why. The pictures looked fine on the digital camera as we were taking them, but were grainy once they were uploaded to the computer. We think it was caused by the low-level lighting in the classroom, but we are not exactly sure. We edited the photos the best we could, but still are unhappy with the grainy appearance. We believe the photos would have been a better quality if they were taken outside.